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Astonishing dinosaur discovery in Canada stuns scientists

Scientists have just made a massive discovery in Canada that came as a total surprise, and could upend our thinking about dinosaurs.

Scientists have just made a tremendous find in Canada, specifically the province of Alberta, after finding what they are describing as a 110 million year old “dinosaur mummy.” This land-dwelling, plant-eating nodosaur was found on the bottom of what used to be an ancient sea, and the minerals kept the remains incredibly intact.

Scientists found it in 2011, determining quickly that it was the best preserved specimen of its kind, period. Basically, it’s a dinosaur mummy, scientists said, with fossilized skin and even the gut contents preserved. They were found in the oil sands of northern Alberta, which many millions of years ago was a seabed.

Back then, huge reptiles became as long as 60 feet, and giant dinosaurs roamed the shores. It’s been a hotbed of fossils ever since. The fossil was photographed for the June issue of National Geographic, and has just gone on display.

Here’s what Suncor, the company that owns the lands where the dinosaur mummy was found, said about the 2011 discovery in a 2015 statement.

In 2011, Suncor came across something a little less expected at its oil sands mining operations – a dinosaur! Thanks to the sharp eye of one of our employees, Suncor made history with this amazing find. Watch as Discovery’s Daily Planet explores what it took to extract the dinosaur fossil from Suncor’s Millennium Mine and what this rare find unveils about Alberta’s pre-historic times.